Stop counting attendance.
Start building engagement.
Turn attendance into engagement — one personal invitation at a time. The exact system Jon-Michael Sherman teaches pastors for seeing every person’s next step and making the asks that grow a church.
Get instant access.
Get started in 30 seconds.
Stop measuring nickels and noses.
Start moving people.
Levels of engagement every church must measure.
Attending · Connected to communication · In a group · Serving on a team · Giving. A ladder that moves people from spectator to participant to owner.
Kind of ask that actually moves people.
Not an announcement. Not an email blast. The single highest predictor of whether someone joins a group, serves, or gives is a personal invitation.
Days that decide whether a new person stays.
People stay because they made friends and found a place to serve. Win the first 90 days with a personal ask into a group or a team — on a clock.
Stop guessing. Start asking.
Where most churches are
- ×Only two numbers get measured — giving and attendance. Nickels and noses.
- ×People attend for years and never join a group, never serve, never give.
- ×Announcements from the stage that move almost nobody.
- ×Asks with no follow-through — shots taken, nothing scored.
- ×First-time guests slip out the back door before anyone learns their name.
Where this course takes you
- ✓Every person measured across five levels — you know exactly where everyone stands.
- ✓A named next step for every face in the room, matched to their gap.
- ✓A culture of personal invitation across your whole team — not just you.
- ✓Follow-through rhythms so no ask dies after “maybe.”
- ✓Every new person personally invited into a group or team in their first 90 days.
You don't have an attendance problem.
You have an engagement problem.
Nickels and noses aren't the scoreboard.
Attendance and giving are just 2 of the 5 levels of engagement. Barna finds they don't reveal whether a church is actually forming disciples — and 44% of Christians now say attendance isn't essential to their faith.
The #1 predictor is a personal invitation.
When the Unstuck Group compared growing churches to stuck ones, the difference wasn't budget or building — it was an active invite culture. “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2).
You can't shepherd what you can't see.
“Know well the condition of your flocks” (Proverbs 27:23). In the average church, half the room isn't in a group and 60% aren't serving — and nobody can name who.
The fortune is in the follow-up.
Growing churches retain about 21% of first-time guests; non-growing churches about 9% (McIntosh & Arn). The variable in between isn't the sermon — it's follow-through.
10 lessons. Three parts.
Part I teaches you to see engagement. Part II teaches you to move people — the ask, the follow-through, the nurture. Part III multiplies it through your team and your first 90 days.
Introduction to Engagement
People who've attended for years and still sit on the edges — because nobody ever named their next step.
2 minWhat Engagement Really Is
The five levels every church must measure — and why nickels and noses aren't enough.
3 minThe Engagement Gap
Score everyone, see the gap honestly, and turn every conversation into an opportunity.
3 minInvitation, Not Broadcast
The heart of the course — the one mindset shift most churches never make.
7 minNext Steps (The Asks)
The ladder of asks — a specific, personal, matched next step for every rung.
12 minThe Power of Following Through
Most engagement dies from no follow-up. Hand-offs, nudges, and leaning-out signals.
6 minContent Journeys
Nurturing the not-yet-ready — warming the soil before you ask again.
5 minTeam Delegation
An engaged church isn't one pastor asking a lot — it's many people asking a little.
4 minThe Engage 90 Challenge
Every new person gets a personal ask into a group or team within 90 days. Not eventually.
4 minSeeing the Whole Picture
Read the health of your whole church at a glance — and build your next year from it.
5 minStop guessing.
Start asking.
Ten lessons. Zero filler. The system behind churches that never stop asking — and never stop growing.
Get instant access — free
“Every person in your church has a story, and sometimes the difference between someone getting connected and disappearing is one timely conversation. PastorCenter helps churches know who needs that conversation.”
Josh Howerton · Lead Pastor, Lakepointe Church
You'll see a field of next steps.”— Jon-Michael Sherman
Jon-Michael Sherman
Jon-Michael Sherman is a former ARC & CMN church planter, lead pastor, executive pastor, and church-builder who has spent the last decade helping pastors break through every kind of growth ceiling — from launch teams to multi-site campuses.
He's the author of Elite Preaching and Pastoral Intelligence, and the founder of PastorCenter.com and SpiritualGiftsPlus. The Church Engagement Course is the system behind Engage, Pastor Center's church engagement platform — the same playbook he uses inside every church he coaches.
A running engagement system — not another inspiring video.
Not someday. By the end of Lesson 9.
You'll also see the tool that runs this whole system for you.
Engage connects to Planning Center, scores every person in your church, surfaces who needs you, and drafts the ask in your voice. The course teaches the system — Engage runs it.
The church that makes asks
is the church that grows.
Sign up once. Watch forever. Start the intro in the next 30 seconds — and see your congregation differently by Sunday.
Start the Church Engagement Course free